12 Minutes

Yesterday I addressed John Boehner’s opposition to taxes. (“How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government? I’m for: NO more.”) Especially taxes on the very best off.

As goes without saying but must always be said anyway, no one likes taxes — or a dentist’s drilling.

But — as is not said often enough — most people recognize taxes are the price we pay for civilization — and that avoiding needed dental work is really stupid. (Likewise, needed infrastructure investment.)

And so I ask for 12 minutes of your time on the off chance you have not already seen both of these videos — or just 6 if you’ve seen one but not the other:

WEALTH INEQUALITY: 6 minutes

This one has just gone viral, so you’ve probably seen it. More than 3 million people have.

THE REAL JOB CREATORS: 6 minutes

This one, by serial entrepreneur billionaire Nick Hanauer, I have linked to over and over.

Note the connection. The first one shows how we’ve decimated the middle class, sucking so much wealth into the tippy top (and then largely shielding it from taxation). The second shows how it is the middle class — not the mega-rich — who are the job creators.

I sent this second one to my one truly right-wing mega-pal. I won’t say who it is, but he was the principal backer of one of the right-wing Republican primary candidates. He is a very nice guy, fun to be with, deeply religious, passionate about trying to alleviate suffering . . . and clueless — I think — about how the people he supports and the policies he espouses and the right-wing line he buys (for example, that climate change is a hoax) actually stand to make the suffering much worse.

He is a smart guy and an honest guy, and he sends me emails every few weeks like, “I’m not avoiding you; I’m still trying to get my head around that video.” He knows he owes me a response. And I think on some level he realizes Hanauer’s logic is drum-tight. But his heart tells him it can’t be right. Because if it were, well, that would mean he and his fellow uber-rich Republicans are wrong about a lot of things. For one: it would make their insistence on low taxes for themselves selfish rather than far-sighted. And, like anyone, he’d rather think of himself as far-sighted. He is a good guy. The game’s not over. Who knows? He may come around.